Columbia will rent two of the seminary's nine buildings and move its religion department there in the fall.
In 1969 he was appointed chairman of the religion department at St. Francis.
The next year he accepted a full-time teaching position in the religion department.
Until 1947, the pastor was the head of the college's religion department.
He taught in the religion department at Andrews University from 1990 to 2006.
Bates' religion department is thus 15 years older than the College.
He was the chair of the English department there and also taught courses in the history, art, and religion departments.
The religion department is very small they don't even have a student assistant.
"Yeah," I said, "but no one in the religion department seems to know where he is right now."
He moved to Boston University in 1973 and was a professor in the religion department.